Corporations & their agents Archives: USDA Wildlife Services

Wildlife Services (WS) is an obscure federal agency under the US Department of Agriculture whose official mandate is “to provide Federal leadership and expertise to resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist.” In practice, this involves killing wild animals with traps, snares, poison, gas, and guns; in the last decade WS has killed over 34 million animals. Generally this is done as a subsidized service to agriculture and the livestock industry, and occasionally involves federally listed endangered species. According to watchdog group Predator Defense, whistleblowers report that “Wildlife Services’ real kill numbers are significantly higher, just not reported.”

In 2015 WS reported destroying 3.2 million animals, including native predatory coyotes (68,905), bobcats (731), wolves (385) and mountain lions (284). Wildlife Services is the subject of Exposed: USDA’s Secret War on Wildlife, the “award-winning film that Jane Goodall wants millions to see,” and in 2016 agreed to update its analysis procedures in a federal court settlement with the group WildEarth Guardians.

by Center for Biological Diversity SAN FRANCISCO— Conservationists sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program today over its outdated wildlife-killing plan for Northern California. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, seeks an updated environmental analysis of the program’s killing of native wildlife including coyotes, bobcats and foxes. “Wildlife Services’ … Continue reading Lawsuit Filed Against Federal Wildlife-killing Program in California→

Featured image: 533 river otters were killed by Wildlife Services in 2015. The federal agency killed a half million more coyotes, bears, wolves, foxes, and other animals than the previous year. By Center for Biological Diversity The highly secretive arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture known as Wildlife Services killed more than 3.2 million … Continue reading 3.2 Million Animals Killed by US Wildlife Services agency in 2015→

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Deep Green Resistance is a movement working to save the planet. With the scale of ecological and social crises that are facing the planet, we evaluate all strategic options for resistance, from non-violence to guerrilla warfare.